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The Commoner
HL, 1918
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'resident, in Address, Declares
America Will Fight On
I
jidont Wilson delivered the following ad
it Baltimore, April 6, on the bccaslon of
ming the Third Liberty Loan campaign:
D$s is the anniversary of our acceptance of
ku o buaituuu iu ugut, jlui uui iiiib iw
id bo free and for the sacred rights of
Mm everywhere. The nation is awake.
is no need to call attention to it. We
Lwhat the' war may cost, our utmost sac-
the lives of our fittest men, and, if need
tl that we possess. The loan we are met
;uss is one of the least parts of what wo
Llled Upon to give and to do, though in
imperative. The people of the whole
ry are alive to the necessity of it and are
tto lend to the utmost, even where it in-
a sharp skimping and daily sacrifice to
rout or meagre earnings. They will iooic
reprobation and contempt upon those who
md will not, upon those who demand a
rate of interest, upon thoBe who think
as a mere commercial transaction. I have
Kftme, therefore, to urge the loan. I have
ito give you, if I can, a more vivid con-
of what it is for.
k reasons for this great war, the reason
It had to come, the need to fight it through
fcke issues that hang upon its outcome, are
clearly disclosed now than ever before. It
to see just what this particular loan
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more sharply revealed than at any pre-
crisis of the momentous struggle. The
ho knows least can now see plainly how
use of justice stands and what the imper-
thing is he is asked to invest in. Men
erica may be more sure than they ever
efore that the cause is their own, and
it should be lost their own great nation's
and mission in the world would be lost
t. . .
call you to witness, my fellow-countrymen,
t no stage of this terrible business havo
ed the purposes of Germany intemper-
If X DUUU1U UD U9UUU1CU 111 LUC JJI CDClHi: U L
so grave, so .iraugnt wiui ine uesumes
nkind throughout all the world, to speak
itruculence, to use the weak language of
or vindictive purpose. We must judge
would T)e judged. I have sought to learn
bjects Germany has in this war from the
h& of her spokesmen, and to deal as frank-
th them as I wished them to deal with me.
ve laid bare our own ideals, our own pur-
without reserve or doubtful phrase and
asked them to say as plainly what -t Is
they seek.
e ourselves have proposed no injustice,
gression. We are ready, whenever the final
toning is made, -to be just to the German
le, deal fairly with the German power, as
iall others.
here can be no difference between peo-
in the final judgment, if it is, indeed, to be
hteous judgment. To propose anything but
ce, even handed and dispassionate justice,
ermany at any time, whatever the outcome
e war, would be to renounce and dishonor
-own cause. For we ask nothing that we are
(willing to accord.
t has been with this thought that I have
ht to learn from those who spoke for Ger-
y whether it was justice or dominion and
if execution of their own will upon the other
ions or uie worm tnat tne uerman leaders
e seeking. They have answered, answered
Unmistakable terms. They have avowed that
as not justice but dominion and the un-
pved execution of their own will.
The avowal has not come from Germany's
itesmen. It has come from her military
ers, who are her real rulers. Her states
have said that they wished peace and were
y to discuss its terms whenever their op-
ents were willing to s?t down at the confer-
e table with them. Her present chancellor
said in indefinite and uncertain terms in-
d and in phrases that often seem to deny
Ir own meaning, but with as much plainness
he thought prudent that he believed that
cs should be based upon the principles
ich we had declared would be our own in the
I settlement. . ' "
I At Brest-Li to vsk 'her civilian delegates spoke
in similar terms; professed their desire to con
clude a fair peace and accord to the' peoples
with whose fortunes they were dealing the right
to choose their own allegiances. But action ac
companied and followed the profession. Their
military masters, the men who act for Germany
and exhibit her purpose in execution, proclaimed
a" very different conclusion. Wecan not mis
take what they have done in Russia, in Fin
land, in the Ukraine, in Roumanla. The real
test of their justice ad fair play has come. From
this wo may judge the rest. They are enjoying
in Russia a cheap triumph in which no brave or
gallant nation can long take pride. A great
people, helpless by their own act, lies for the
time at their mercy.. Their fair professions are
forgotten. They nowhere set up justice but
everywhere Impose their power and exploit ev
erything for their own use and aggrandizement,
and the peoples of conquered provinces arc In
vited to be free under their dominion!
"Are we not justified in believing that fhev
would do the same thing at their western front
if they were not there face to face with armies
-whom even their countless divisions can not
overcome? If, when they have felt their check
to bo final, they should propose favorable and
equitable terms with regard to Belgium and
France and Italy, could they blame us if we con
cluded that they did so only to assure thorn
selves of a free hand in Russia and the east?
"Their purpose is undoubtedly to maKc all
the Slavic peoples, all the free and amb lious
nations of the Baltic peninsula, all the lauds
that Turkey, has dominated and misruled, sub
ject to their will and ambition and build unon
that dominion' an empire of force upon wh'ch
they fancy that they can erect an empire of
gain and commercial supremacy an empire as
hostile to the Americas as to the Europe which
it will overawe an empire which will ultimate
ly master Persia, India and the peoples of the
Far East. In such a programme, our ideals, the
ideals of justice and humanity and liberty, the
principle of the free self-determination of na
tions upon which all the modern world insists,
can play no part. They are rejected for the
ideals of power, for the principle that the strong
must rule the weak, that trade must follow the
flag, whether those to whom it is taken we1
come it or not, that the peoples of the world
are to be made subject to the patronage and
joverlordship of those who have the power to
enforce it.
"That programme, once carried out, America
and all who care or dare to stand with her
must arm and prepare themselves to contest
the mastery of the world, a mastery in which the
rights of common men, the rights of women
and all who are weak, must for the time being
be trodden underfoot and disregarded and the
old, age long struggle for freedom and right
begin again at its beginning. Everything that
America has lived for and loved and grown
great to vindicate and bring to a glorious real
ization will have fallen in utter ruin and the
gates of mercy once more pitilessly shut upon
mankind!
"The thing Is preposterous and impossible,
and yet is not that what the Whole course and
action of the German armies has meant wherever
they have moved? I do not wish, even in this
moment of utter disillusionment, to Judge
harshly or unrighteously. I judge only what
.the German arms have accomplished with un
pitying thoroughness throughout every fair re
gion they have touched.
"What, then, are we to do? For myself, I am
ready, ready still, ready even now, to discuss a
fair and just and honest peace at any time that
it is sincerely proposed a peace in which the
strong and the weak shall fare alike. But the
answer, when I proposed such a peace, came
from the German commanders in Russia, and I
can not mistake the meaning of the answer.
"I accept the challenge. I know that you ac
cept it. All the world shall know that you ac
cept it. It shall appear in the utter sacrifice
and self-forgetfulness with which .we shall gye
all that we love and all that we have to redeem
the world and make it fit for free men like our
selves to live in.
"This now is the meaning of all that we do.
Let everything that we say, my fellow country
men, everything that wo henceforth plan and
accomplish, ring trueto thin response till tho
majesty and might of 'our concerted power shall
fill the thought and utterjy defeat the force of
those who flout and misprize what wo honor and
hold dear.
"Germany has once more said that force, and
force alone, shall decldo whether Justice and
peace shall reign in tho affairs of men, whether
right as America conceives it or dominion aa
she conceives it shall determine the destinies of
mankind.
"Thore Is, therefore, but one response pos
sible from us: Force, force to tho utmost, force
without stint or limit, tho righteous and trium
phant force which shall make right the law of
tho world and cast every selfish dominion, down
in the dust."
SALOONLES8 WITHIN TWO YEA KB
'
From the St. Louis Post-DIspatch, April 'G J
William J. Bryan, in an interview this 'morn
ing at Hotel Jefferson, whore he stopped a foiv
hours on his way from Indianapolis to Lebanon,
111., to address students of McKcndrec College
in the afternoon, predicted that the national
prohibit'on amendment will bo ratified wlttifn
ayear and that tho United States will be with
out saloons within two years. '
He also gave it as his oplnloli that if thore Is
an extra session of the Missouri legislature tho
"drys" are 'n no danger of jeopardizing tho le
gality of the amendment if it is ratified at tho
special session, whether Governor Gardner, in
clude Its consideration In his call or not, V ,',,
Bryan said that he had a particularly tendor
fcol'ng for McKendree College, because his
father was. graduated there in 1849, and be
cause it wa3 the first college to confer on hjm
a doctor's degree, . Hq now has degrees frpjn
six colleges. ,,
"I was able to be in Indianapolis yesterday,"
Bryan said, "only because it was -my only open
date for weeks, and I was glad to bo there be
cause it was tho first day of a 'dry' Indiana.
"We have made great progress since I wasin
bt. Louis a month ago. Delaware, South Da
kota and Massachusetts havo ratified the amend
ment, and in the Nebraska legislature it has
passed the lower house and i3 in the senate.
"Fr'ends of the amendment are encouragdd
by the fact that we have secured five wet states
and havo only four more to secure. As 36
states are necessary to ratify and as we have 27
dry states, it only required nine wets in addi
tion. Only six dry states have :.cted so far and
even this early we have secured five of the nine
wet states, so that rat'flcation is as certain as
any future event can be. In fact it looks now
as if we will have several states to spare. ' '
"We can confidently count on completing tho
ratification within a year, and that means abol
ition of saloons within two years."
Ho mentioned as therwet states, which had'
ratified the amendment,, Kentucky, Maryland,
Delaware, Massachusetts' and Texas, and .jsajkl
that Texas ratified the amendment before voting
the state dry. '. '
After stating that he had invest'gated the
legality of ratification of the amendment at a
special session of the legislature in a state which
has a constitution, such as Missouri's which
prohibits a special session from considering any
matter not recommended by the governor, Bry
an said he was convinced there was no danger
of making the ratification illegal, and that even
if there was a question It could be remedied at
the next regular session.
"A governor takes upon himself a grave re
sponsibility, who deliberately refuses to men
tion that In his call if a fa'Hure to mei.tion it
would nullify the action," continued Bryan.
"If, on the other hand, his co-operation is not
necessary, his refusal merely indicates his un
willingness to be a party to ratification. When
you remember that every day's deiay means
more than $3,000,000 to the liquor traffic, and
every month's delay meaks more than $100,
000,000, you can understand why the liquor
traffic Is-for delay.
"And you can understand what a responsi
bility, a public official takes when he aids, tho
liquor traffic to that extent.
"We have a wet governor In Nebraska who
refused to put it in his call, but we expect to
ratify it In spite of him if we can. Our house
already has acted, with only seven negative vote
out of 100."
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